Re: Hyb- Kitchen chemistry

A brief note on procedures.

I use three solvents.
1) Distiled water  -I cheat and use water from dehumidifier 
2) Methyl hydrate- (an alchol) the alchol solvent used for paints very pure and very cheap
3) Clear lamp oil readily available and also very cheap


I bought myself a  morter and pestle and grind up flower parts in the appropriate solvent. Grinding in water primarily removes water based pigments.  

All flower and solvent mixtures are filtered with coffee filters. Works reasonably well to remove solids. Sometimes some small suspended paarticles seep through.

For oil based pigments can grind in methyl Hydrate. this also removes water based pigment. Put this distilate in a test tube with an equal amount of lamp oil, cover and shake.  After settling the oil based pigment moves into   oil and water based pigments stay in alchol. The water based pigments will deteriorate rapidly in the methyl hydrate so take photos right away. Oil base pigments much more stable.

To get lycopene is a bit more complicated. It doesn'r disolve in alcohol. Can grind in oil but then have everthing else and can't seperate from carotenes. So heat it in alcohol until carptene is disolved. I do this by puting petal in alcohol in a pyrex measuring cup anp putting cup in a saucepan of water and heat. This perevents overheating and controls temperature better.
When removing petal from alcohol can see lycopene and pattern of distribution. Now can grind up petal in oil and filter.

There you have it.  All done in the kitchen.

Also interesting to extract from various vegtables and fruit and compare with what is known about them. Red cabbage extract can be use as a ph meter as it changes colour with ph of solution.

Some dark purple/black pigment are too intense so have to be diluted to get a good sence of their colour.

Now trying some   daylilies. Their orange seems to be an anthocyanin and beta-carotene combination. Not the same as iris orange.


Chuck Chapman 
 


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